Seth Godin’s Q&A with Entrepreneurs

Notes from Seth Godin’s talk

1. Find generous skeptics – people who will be willing to spend time to understand your product and give you feedback. But disregard the typical skeptics who just doubt you but don’t spend time understanding you.

2. Nowadays, making and producing is easy – getting people to understand that you have something worth buying is more difficult.

3. What is the difference between freelancer and entrepreneur? An entrepreneur builds a business larger than himself. He can go away and sleep and the business will still keep running. A freelancer runs his own business by hiring the cheapest person in the room – himself.

4. A brand is not a sign, it is not a logo. A brand in an expectation that people have based on the promise they think you have made. What does that user need to hear in the promises you make that will get them to say “this is for me!”? What is the story they tell themselves that will make them want to buy?

5. Build conversation into your product. You must help your loyal customers have the opportunity to talk about your products to others.

6. The more time you spend with the people who will be most delighted by the product you will make, the smarter you will be.

7. Many can be successful. But the bigger question is – can you matter? If your product goes away, will it be missed?